UFCThe Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is a U.S.-based mixed martial arts organization, recognized as the largest MMA promotion in the world. The UFC is headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada and is owned and operated by Zuffa, LLC. This promotion is responsible for solidifying the sport's postion in the history-books.
UFC is currently undergoing a remarkable surge in popularity, along with greater mainstream media coverage. UFC programming can now be seen on FOX, FX, and FUEL TV in the United States, as well as in 35 other countries worldwide.

Been thinking about this for a while, but I'm sick as an MMA fan of seeing a fight for the 170lbs title, between two guys who weigh 190lbs on fight night.

What's the point and why are we doing this?

Tonight we'll see a fight for the 155lbs LIGHTWEIGHT title, in which one guy will weigh about 155 and one guy will weigh 170lbs or more.

People say "if they can cut and make the weight, I'm not bothered" - it's dangerous. The process of cutting is dangerous, and fighting a much bigger guy is dangerous for the fighter.

I'd love to see them weigh in en route to the Octagon on fight night. This would cause chaos in the short term, as 3 or more of the current champions would have to vacate and move divisions, but would ultimately result in us seeing fights between two guys of the same weight.

Completely agree, I've always been a fan of same day 1 hour before fight weigh ins.

To cut out the ensuing chaos, also move up weight divs by 10% or so, so LW would be 170, WW would be 187 and so on. Because lets face it, that's what 99.99% of the fighters in those weight divisions actually weigh on fight night anyway and no one would have to dehydrate themselves pointlessly or move weight divisions once the same day weigh ins come in.

For the .01% fighters in these divs that are actually cutting more than 10% weight, GOOD, force them to actually fight in the class they belong in instead of taking diuretics and beating up little kids. And for guys like Edgar that fight above their weight class, also good for their own safety and careers.

That is exactly what weight classes were for, this "you can steam it, it's legal" is a mockery of the spirit of weight classes and horrible for fighter health.

there ya go Major problem would be that top 10 fighters official purse is only a small percentage of their earnings per fight, but still - it would be revealed to the public how much they really weighed, causing a backlash from fans.

The problem is what do you do if someone misses weight on the way to the octagon? scrap the fight?

Then people will say "okay do it a few hours before", which will cause fighters to still try to cut weight.

Ah but I thought of that one too .

IMO you could give greater leeway with these weigh ins with purse-penalties to discourage making the leeways habit.

So for example right now they have a 1 lb leeway at the weigh-ins so a LW fighter can still fight at 156lbs. In the new system, allow say up to 5 lbs, with 2 lbs over being a 10% purse penalty, 3 lbs over being a 20% purse penalty and so on. If they're REALLY stupid and can't keep off the McDonalds long enough to even be within 5 lbs of the limit, scrap the fight or do a catchweight like they do now.

Even if a fighter actually takes the financial hit and comes in 5 lbs over, it's still much less weight disparity than we have on a regular basis now with HWs like Anthony Johnson fighting at WW, and not really unfair.

IMO this system would encourage making weight and actually make it easier because there's less temptation to eat a bit more or pack on some extra muscle and "steam off the difference" at the last minute. You weigh what you weigh, it says so on the scale, no steam guesswork involved. You can't even stay within 5 lbs, you face the music for forcing a scrap or a last minute catchweight.

It's funny how fighters still intentionally miss weight even though a percentage of their fighter purse goes to their opponent. Rampage literally gave away $60k - $80k for his fight against Bader...lolz! On top of that he got booed and lost. I was hoping for him to win since it was back in Japan...but he just doesn't have it in him anymore. BTW: That was a phenomenal interview by Helwani and Rampage in Japan.

I thought of the pre-fight weigh in but not twice. That's a good idea although probably a bit of a pain for the fighters and staff. That's what's neat about HW. Most come in under 265 without really adding anymore weight other than Brock, Bigfoot, and possibily Overeem. Say a 225 HW fights against a 265. There's a big disparity in strength however the lighter fighter will almost always be significantly quicker with the same amount of KO power so it evens out. But I think within five years the UFC will introduce a SUPER HW division.

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The problem is what do you do if someone misses weight on the way to the octagon? scrap the fight?

Then people will say "okay do it a few hours before", which will cause fighters to still try to cut weight.

If it's not too much (roughly Liddellianenko's idea) massively take away from his purse. If it's too much, formally disqualify that fighter (=loss on his record) and informally tell him "So you want to fight at Bellator like Anthony Johnson? Just tell us, there is no need screw our show!" I guess fighters will learn pretty fast then.

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Originally Posted by mattandbenny

Its not ideal, but weigh on the day before the fight has been about for many many years, and will be about for many many years to come. Just gotta accept its part of the fight game.

There have been tons of changes in the rules since UFC 1, the last change being at UFC 138, so there is no reason why it wouldn't be possible to get rid of that dumb weigh in the day before and replacing it by same day weigh-ins.

I fully agree with same day weigh ins, but let's look at the consequences for a sec: If same-day weigh ins were implemented, many, many fighters could not make their respective weight classes that they fight in currently because these same fighters rely on heavy weight cuts. These fighters would now be forced up a weight class or maybe even two. Here's my point: What we would see if this plan were implemented is a giant shift in the UFC towards the heavier divisions and a giant shift away from the lighter divisions, the very same divisions that are already weakly supported and not very deep. I mean, how many current FLW fighters right now can make 125lbs the morning of the fight? I venture to say that it is not that many, and we all know that the FLW/BW/FW divisions are all not all that deep as of yet due to being relatively newly created.

Just something to think about. That being said, I think they should move the weigh-ins to the same day anyways.